Danger from foaming manure pits

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

According to the University of Minnesota Extension Service, foaming in swine manure pits "has become a serious safety concern" in the last few years. Foaming fills pits, reducing manure capacity but also trapping explosive methane gases. Farmers are urged to turn off pilot lights and maintain full ventilation during pumping. Fans should run even when pigs are removed.

Despite the thousands of pig barns with manure pits in the American Midwest, there have been only six reported explosions since the foam began appearing in 2009. But, though it doesn't happen often, when it does it is a disaster.

According to the Minnesota Daily in February, researchers are looking at whether a "new breed of bacteria" in manure pits might be related to the use of Distillers Dried Grains from ethanol production in pig feeds. Organizations opposed to "factory farming" and ethanol use have already jumped to this conclusion in their own reports published on websites.

The Minnesota Daily report notes that researchers think the answer is likely not that simple. Chuck Clanton, a University of Minnesota bioproducts and biosystems engineering professor, points out that sometimes there are two identical barns, side by side with the same management, genetics and diet. "One foams and one does not." BP